BOCHUM/FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The partial withdrawal of car rental company Hertz from the electric car business could be an expression of a larger decline, according to one expert. Once again, the residual values of e-vehicles have been affected, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoffer from the Bochum-based Center Automotive Research. "A wave is building up against the electric car when rental companies, leasing companies, dealers and ultimately also used car buyers are unsettled."

Used e-vehicles would be passed along the recycling chain like "hot potatoes", which would lead to losses. Dudenhoffer sees the greatest risks in the manufacturers, who are already trying to push their electric models onto the market with high discounts. Private individuals, who mostly buy used cars, have to check carefully whether they are buying a car whose performance is extremely uncertain. If in doubt, they would opt for a combustion engine again.

A large part of the uncertainty in Germany is due to the wrong political decisions of the traffic light coalition, says the car expert. Instead of the promised full demand for climate-friendly e-cars by the end of 2025, the state premiums were already set to zero last year, with negative consequences for residual values at every intermediate step.

Buyers were only touching electric cars with very sharp fingers, says Dudenhoffer. "The uncertainty in the market could hardly be greater." If VW, for example, now announces high price cuts for the ID4 model, the residual values of e-cars will be under additional pressure. In the USA, the upcoming presidential election also threatens further development. "With a President Trump, the electric car is dead in the USA."

A few days ago, US rental company Hertz announced that it would sell a third of its e-fleet ahead of time and replace it with combustion engines. The company announced that it wanted to adapt its supply to demand, which would require it to write off an additional 245 million dollars. In the past, Hertz pointed out, among other things, that repeated price reductions by Tesla had also lowered the resale value of fleet vehicles. On the other hand, damage repairs for electric cars are about twice as expensive as for combustion engines, it was said at the time./ceb/so/DP/nas